Posts made in September, 2012

It’s taken me a while to work on this post. At first, I wrote a lot about Newberry Crater National Volcanic Monument. I wrote a few paragraphs about its history and how it’s very similar to its neighbor, Crater Lake National Park. I wrote about how this was going to be a 2-day, 23-mile backpacking trip but was cut short due to smoke. I wrote about a lot of things. But you’d get bored and not enjoy it, I’m sure, so I deleted all of it.
Instead, I’d rather get to the meat and potatoes of this hike report by sharing with you a lot of photos I took. I usually...

For hike #8, I headed out of Bend, up Cascades Lakes Scenic Byway, past Mt. Bachelor and into the beautiful Cascade Mountains. I’m trying to get as many hikes as I can up here at higher elevation before winter arrives, ending hiking season abruptly. (I give it a few more weeks before that happens.)
This hike was a solo hike, in more than one way. I came to the trail by myself and had the trails to myself, a bit astonishing considering that it was such a beautiful afternoon. I guess residents of Eastern Oregon consider Labor Day (Sept 5th) the last day of the hiking season, no...

“You want to go on a hike?” My friend asked one afternoon. I don’t remember a time I would ever answer ‘no’ to that question. A few hours later, we were driving into the Oregon Badlands Wilderness. Located just 20 minutes east of Bend off of Highway 20, the Oregon Badlands Wilderness is just over 29,000 acres of high desert terrain which mostly consists of lava rock, Western juniper, and rabbit brush. If you like junipers, then you’ll love this wilderness.
The gnarly trees seem to hold their own despite the lack of rain (less than 12 inches annually)...

When I arrived at the Tumalo Falls Trailhead at 2:30pm, I had high expectations for the distance I planned to hike. I read about a 10-mile loop that starts and ends here, just a stone’s throw away from the always-beautiful Tumalo Falls, but it wasn’t long into the hike when I realized that I was being too much of a naturalist and not enough of a hiker to complete such a feat this afternoon. But no regrets! With winter coming, I’m not passing any opportunity to check out the plants, wildflowers, or other flourishing fauna on the trail. It will be just a matter of time before...

I arrived at the Six Lakes Trailhead with my friend, Caitlin, not knowing what to expect on this 7-mile hike. All I know about this hike is what I saw on my Central Oregon Hiking-Trail Map. It wasn’t too far into the hike that I turned to Caitlin and exclaimed, “I love this trail!” It ended up being the easiest seven miles I’ve hiked in a long time, and Caitlin agreed.
The relatively-flat trail, running from the trailhead up to the junction with Senoj Lakes trail junction, assumingly passes six lakes, but other than the big and beautiful Blow Lake and Doris Lake,...